A twisting path, not a straight line—that’s the concept of legacy. Marty was a messed-up kid going down a dangerous path. The noise in his life was like the rock-and-roll music he listened to—loud and angry. But somewhere along the line he heard a different kind of music. It was a group of people who sought to minister to his …
It’s hard to overstate how important family-owned businesses are to the U.S. economy. According to statistics collected by the Conway Center for Family Business, 90% of all business enterprises are family-owned. Family-owned businesses range from the very large (think Walmart) to the very small, but all together represent 62% of U.S. employment and 78% of new job creation. In the …
Now that the election is over, and control of the Senate is settled, there’s more clarity on the tax reforms we can expect to see coming. The tax plan in President-elect Biden’s campaign platform was far ranging, including the following measures to increase government revenue. Individual and Corporate Tax Under a Biden plan, those with taxable income over $400,000 would …
There’s still plenty of uncertainty over how 2021 will shape up. How should the wise nonprofit leader adjust to shifting conditions?
Have you considered the manna legacy? I love reading the stories of the Bible, particularly those of the Old Testament. One of the stories that gets me is about manna, the miraculous “bread from heaven” God provided to sustain his people in the desert. Think about it. The children of Israel were complaining. They’d left Egypt, and even though they had …
Do you have a family code of conduct? Perhaps you have one and call it something else. Or the idea of a family code may be new to you. But let me back up a step or two to explain why I’m even talking about a code of conduct. We see in the corporate world that often businesses adopt a …
You might know I spend a good deal of time teaching fundraisers what I’ve learned from working with major donors, but today I’d like to draw attention to a trend in the other direction, toward the democratization of giving. What do I mean? One of the more dramatic growth areas in charitable giving has been the rapid increase in the …
I used to think of legacy as something we left behind. But not anymore.
So it’s happened twice recently. I got on a plane and there were people giving gifts. First, there was the woman with her son. They came bearing chocolate for the flight attendants. But the young mom with all the hurry of travel made sure that it was her son who made the gift. He carefully doled out his gifts to …
I leaned over and asked if Kansas City was her destination. She said, “Yes, but I’ve been visiting my daughter in Oregon.” She smiled sadly. And the story came out.
